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[samdogg]

Hey folks,

I'm more of an observer than a poster, but I felt it was my duty to show (not brag, lol) another successful installation and review of WM 5





Of course I did not find this upgrade myself. I accepted darkoverlord's offer, except you dont have to send your phone in now, he will supply you with the goodies. Now I will try give an honest review of this highly sought out operating system.


First off to all those stupid people who thought it couldn't be done. It has, and it already was done. We first saw it a couple of months ago in a post by muchomorek, and then again in another post, darkoverlord installed the damn thing himself. Now, how he got a hold of it, I have no clue. The Mpx200 was the test unit for WM 5 by Microsoft from what I have seen and heard from alot of different websites. I guess, this is so, because if you can run the OS on this phone and keep it stable and fast, then it probably wll run better on all other SmartPhones released after it.

Install (For any one who cares):

I dont know if this is the way they install it at Microsoft or if this was darkoverlord's own custom way, but I didnt not use the Motorola Upgrade wizard at all. Basically I was given 3 bin files and a custom flash program (maybe made by darkoverlord) that you run using command prompt on your computer.

First off, the hardware fingerprint darkoverlord was talking about, its tied to the computer your installing from. The first time I ran the flash program, it gave me a hardware code, generated by my computer. I gave this code to Mr. Dark, and he generated a hardware key for my computer, which I never had to enter again. So basically I could install WM 2005 on any MPX200 phone from my computer, as many times as I wanted.

The only thing is, I am guessing if the hardware fingerprint is tied to your OS, then if you reinstall windows on your computer, you have to get another hardware key from Mr. Dark. Now, if the hardware fingerprint is ACTUALLY tied to your computer's hardware, then you shouldnt have this problem, and once you enter the key, you never have to enter it again. BTW, just a note, you have to have at least a 32MB SD, as some of you suspected. I had a 1 GB SD card.

Phew...now, once I put in the key, it allowed me to access the custom flash program and from there:

- I flashed the phone with the first bin file, WITHOUT the SD card or the SIM.
- Then I had to perform a Master reset.
- Then, flashed the phone with the second bin file, WITH the SD card back in
- Then, flashed the phone with the third bin file
- Then, had to do a soft reset, I think, clicked a couple fo options, and then it formatted the storage card. From there, I booted up and it was all good.


Appearance:

Honestly, the OS is NOT completly different looking, as you guys have probably seen. A little bit of a smaller fonts used here and there. And of course a little bit different graphics used for icons and borders and on screen buttons and what not. The START button has a windows logo by it, and the start menu is now all icons, instead of a list. If you really wanna know, look at the screenshots for yourself. Overall it still looks better then WM 2003.

Functionality:

Well there are good things and bad things, of course. Now, remember, that I received version 5.1.1700.1434. I dont know if this is a final version so things may be different from what other already available WM 5 SmartPhones have or dont have. With that being said:

Good:

- Better Bluetooth support (dont matter)
- Better Camera support (dont matter again)
- New Photo and Video Viewer
- Attatch custom pics and ring tones with contacts, so that when a contact calls, both come up
- New Internet Explorer, with options to save images, music, and sounds.
- Windows Media Player 10 (Essentially the same as previous versions but different looks)
- New MSN bar that can be displayed on the home screen, which gives you icons for hotmail, messenger, and MSN
- MP3 support for ringtones
- Overall faster OS

Forgive me if if I forgot anything, this my first time writing a review of an OS.

Bad:

Now, remember, that I received version 5.1.1700.1434. I dont know if this is a final version so things may be different from what other already available WM 5 SmartPhones have or dont have. With that being said:

- No File Explorer
- No easily accessible battery viewer or memory meter. There is no icons for either. Both of these are hidden in the Settings icon, under "Power Management" and "About"
- No Task manager

Again if I am missing anything please forgive and forget. If anybody has anything
else to add, please do so. As far as the lack of file explorer, Task Manager and batter/memory meter icons, yah it sucks, but I got around this by getting Resco Explorer 2003 5.15 and Resco System Toys 1.20. And if your broke, like me, just download the trial versions from the official site, and google for some serials or cracks. These 2 programs help ALOT, and I recommend them for anyone planning to do this upgrade.

As far as the OS being faster, You MUST use at least a 32 MB SD card. 256 and 1GB card work the best, but DO NOT use a 512 SD card. This OS has a serious issue with that size SD card for some reason. Follow these lines, and WM 5 will perform faster and nicer than WM 2003

Signal/Voice Quality:

When I first got my MPX200, of course it was a US AT&T phone with a AT&T SIM card. At that time I had Cingular, and I had WM 2003. With those 2, I had OK signal and voice quality, with dropped calls every now and then. I never had chance to unlock the phone and test it with T-Mobile. However, before I got the WM 5 upgrade, I switched to T-Mobile (Cingular BTW is *&^%, and is wasting what AT&T had setup before, in my opinion). So Mr.Dark unlocked the phone for me as well, with a program he gave me. Booted up my phone with my T-Mobile SIM, and WM 5, and I noticed a better signal and better voice quality. Now, I am no expert, but the better signal and voice, could be a result of switching to T-mobile, or just because of the area I live at, so I dont know for sure, so dont kill me if anyone else gets different results.

Battery Life:

Havent had the upgrade that long to test battery life, but so far, from what I can tell, it seems to be consuming a little less power. Either way, I dont think it will consume more battery life than 2003. I'll keep you updated.

Last Impression:

Overall I would recommend the OS upgrade if you want more functionality and speed as far as what I described. If you dont wanna bother with flashing the rom or with buying or downloading a couple of apps to fix this OS, then just pass on it. Otherwise, get this nice upgrade, and soon. Hope this review has helped people. You guys know where to get this thing. So good luck.

Samdogg


UPDATE 1: Well, as some of you may be aware, there is a new way of installing WM 2005. Basically you have to get the bin files, if you can get a hold of them, and convert them to .img files. next step is to use Motorola Upgrade Wizard and follow basically the same install process, but with using that program. Yep, no hardware fingerprint, no nothing! If your looking to do this upgrade, as usual, google around for the files and the instruction, and you WILL find it. Good luck!

This post has been edited by samdogg: Dec 27 2005, 07:14 PM